'Anne Hathaway' admits leading $245 million crypto theft gang that spent a fortune on nightclubs, watches, and luxury cars

Here's a tip for any budding cybercriminals out there.

If you're going to steal a quarter of a billion dollars worth of cryptocurrency, maybe don't broadcast on a group chat every time you buy a Lamborghini, or blow half a million dollars on a single night out at a nightclub.

Because it might just be that you draw the attention of the authorities.

That's a lesson that 22-year-old Singaporean Malone Lam has now learnt the hard way, after pleading guilty to heading up a group that stole over US $245 million in cryptocurrency from victims across the United States.

Lam - who used online aliases such as "Anne Hathaway", "$$$", and "King Greavy" - is said to have operated his criminal operation from October 2023 until May 2025, recruiting accomplices through online gaming platforms.

Regular readers of Hot for Security may recognise Lam's name. Back in October 2024, we wrote about how he was arrested after allegedly tricking a single victim out of US $230 million worth of Bitcoin while posing as Google Support.

Further alleged members of the gang were charged in May 2025 for being part of the same racketeering conspiracy - providing different functions such as database hackers, target identifiers, callers, money launderers, and even burglars who would actually physically break into victims' homes to steal their hardware cryptocurrency wallets.